Driving the Numbers Up

The percentage of households in the U.S. with three or more cars (18.3 percent) is nearly double the percentage of households with no cars (9.3 percent), and more than 76 percent of Americans say they drive to work alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Only 11 percent of people carpool, and merely 5 percent use public transportation to get to work. Telecommuting as a high-tech solution to the problems of pollution-spewing traffic seems to be a bust: Only 3 percent of Americans work at home, roughly the same percentage as in 1990. Carpooling dropped 16 percent since 1990. To put these numbers in perspective: In 1960, one in eight workers in Massachusetts walked to work; now, only one in 25 hoof it.